While complaining about my job, I realized that almost everyone I know will nod their head in agreement and say “tell me about it.” Is it possible that the entire work-force is miserable? I think not. I know there’s got to be a couple teeming thousands who get up in the morning going “Hot damn, I get to go to a job I like today! Yahooie!” Reveal yourself, and what you do! (and maybe how Swiddles can get into that line of work.)
Sorry, Swiddles, can’t help you there. Although I am taking classes for a professional translator’s certificate, and the job is paying for Oracle certification courses, so maybe somewhere down the road I can get into something I find more personally rewarding. Not a bad thing to consider, if you’re as bored and frustrated as most of the rest of us.
yep, sure do.
i shoot and edit video for a production company in toronto.
learning maya.
yep.
Well, I don’t wake up every morning and go “Yippee, can’t wait to get there!”, I suppose I do really like my job.
I am a secretary sort of, and work for a lot of research engineers (for lack of a better word). It’s in the R&D part of a big company. How’s THAT for not saying much? grin
But seriously, I get to see a lot of really neat next generation doohickies (I don’t know what the heck they’re inventing - I’m a freakin’ secretary!) and since many of the people here have way too much on their plate, I get to do a lot of other non-secretarial stuff, like salvaging old equipment, design web pages, help the IT guys, learn about computer stuff, I just finished up training for XML - just a lot of diverse things that are also fun. It doesn’t get boring.
Yes, there are times when things get tedious, and yes, there are times when things are too political for my tastes, and yes there are times when I’m bored. But if I put my mind to it and ask nicely, there’s usually something I can find to do to liven things up.
Plus the benefits here kick butt, and the cafeteria food is pretty good.
Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m miserable, I hate my job, I dread everyday I’m here. I’m really a genious musician, who should get discovered any day now, but I’m stuck with this stupid office job until that happens.
And I’m actually a positive person in general, though I’m starting to feel a bit of cynicism creeping around.
Well, cheers.
I don’t like the amount of work I’m doing lately, and I’m certainly not crazy about everybody I work with (one word: Marketing. 'nuff said), but I do enjoy what I do. I’ve got a reasonable facsimile of the job I always wanted, so it would be stupid to complain too much.
I’m an editor, primarily working on SF/Fantasy books.
I love my job/profession. It took a while to find out what I really wanted to do when I grew up, but I’ve been smiling ever since I discovered it. I enjoy it because there is a measureable outcome and there is always something new that comes up. Granted there was a post that I hated absolutely, but that was due to an incompetent and malicious co-worker [who was certifiably nuts]. It was frustrating being told that I had responsibility for something and yet I was powerless to get rid of psycho-bitch or to get additional resources for a particularly important program. Fortunately, I left that job with head held high and good reputation intact.
I like my job. Not every second of it; not all aspects of it. But it has definite pluses that allow me to say I like it.
If you don’t know (or if you look at my profile and see “Hired Killer”), I’m a pest control technician. I do commercial pest control in suburban NY.
Why do I like this kind of work? It allows me a pretty good degree of independence. I don’t sit in an office all day (I drive around a lot, but I don’t mind). I don’t have a boss hovering over my shoulder while I work. Often, I can see the results of my work fairly quickly, so I get closure on some problems. I am honestly making a difference for the businesses I service. I get to solve problems, and I meet some interesting and nice people from time to time. I am looked upon as an expert by the people who need my services, and since I am well-educated and articulate, I can explain what I’m doing and why, and make recommendations to my clients and be understood and appreciated.
Maybe you think, if this guy’s so well-educated and articulate, why is he crawling around restaurants killing roaches? Well, I had a higher-prestige position as an associate editor in a children’s publishing house. Hated it. It turned something that I loved into a mere commodity. The atmosphere in the office was stifling and cut-throat. It was “creative” to a degree, but the bad outweighed the good.
I like what I’m doing now. For all the reasons listed above, and because I’m damn good at it.
I LOVE what I do for a living. I don’t exactly jump straight out of bed with a big smiley face everyday, but I never dread coming to work. There is always a new challenge and a new opportunity to explore (or exploit) and that just fuels my fire.
It did take me about 8-10 years to figure out what I like to do and how to do it well. For a lot of that time I was really miserable and lost. (just ask my ex-wife) But once I figured it out (i’m still learning everyday, BTW) nothing else, job-wise, bothers me. I know I can do this from anywhere in the world, for just about anybody and I’m good at what I do.
Now before you all think I’m completely nuts…I hate the company that I work for. Run by an eccentric, Ferrari drivin’ cheapskate. He loves to throw gobs of money at “projects” that will help him and his company but there are few perks, if any, to working for him. No benefits, bonuses, nothing. Not even a coffee pot. Speaking of that, I’m off to Starbucks…want anything?
I sure as goddam hell do not–and I have been told in no uncertain terms that I am never going to be promoted. And the only jobs listed in the Times are just as bad as mine or even worse. I’m too damn old to “start over,” and what the hell would I start over in, when everything else is just as soul-deadening as what I’m doing, sanywasy?
Just lurked in the “what comes after?” thread and can’t believe so many people are dreading death–after 15 years in the publishing indiustry, all that keeps me going is the certainty that someday if I do this long enough, I will be rewarded with the peace and quiet of the grave.
And by the way, there better NOT be anything to reincarnation, or I will be REALLY pised off.
–Pollyanna, the Glad Girl
I’m a book editor, too. My experience is closer to Ace’s than DAVE’s, though.
Some publishers are infamous for being miserable places to work; mine isn’t quite so bad. I have less autonomy than I did a few years ago…the book biz, which is known for constantly being in an uproar, has been in a bit more of an uproar for the past coupla years.
Still, I get to work with some very talented authors…and its due to my Herculean efforts that their ragged manuscripts eventually turn into nice shiny new hardcover books…
…which end up on remainder tables nationwide a year later.
I love what I do. I’m a writer for public television. I started life as a newspaper reporter and I loved it too! The pay drove me away and I went into public relations, which I didn’t like at all. But, since it was PR here (I didn’t feel like I was sitting around lying all day, for one thing), I could stand it.
After 5 years, I switched to the production division and oh, boy what a difference that makes! Right now my assignments include a weekly feature magazine series and a current events program for middle-schoolers. Both are extremely gratifying. In the magazine show, I get to work on feature stories, meet people all around the state, and learn something new practically every day. For the currents-events show, I get the thrill of knowing that I’m directly contributing to the education of youngsters. Since it uses a quiz-show format with multiple choice questions, I also get to entertain myself by making up funny and creative wrong answers. 
I also work on public affairs talking-head shows, which is somewhat fulfilling as it serves the public by offering a forum for issues of importance. I’ve also started working on longer form documentaries and I’m learning to edit. No, I don’t leap from bed with a glad cry each morning. But since it’s also a place that treats parents wonderfully, I’m a happy mom and a happy writer.
I also do freelance work, which keeps my name in print 
and makes me some fun money. (mainly book reviews)
Yeah, I love my job - being an EMT is not the sort of career option you take if you do have a passion for doing it. However, until I was asked to join as a volunteer 20 years ago, I would never have thought that I would be in the vocation of my choice before I was 25. Hell, at school, if anyone suggested that I would end up in the medical field I would have laughed them out of the room. Funny how life turns out…
I forgot to mention that one of the reasons why I like my job is because I recognize it for what it is - a job, just a job, and nothing more than a job. It’s how I earn money.
In short, my job is what I do, not who I am. I have other, much more satisfying ways of defining my identity. Separating the two keeps me sane and happy.
Uke, I agree, working with talented authors is the best part of editing, bar none. Authors are great fun, and when you have a good working relationship with one, it’s an incredible rush.
Discovering a diamond in the rough is neat, too. I did that a couple times, and I’m incredibly proud of the books I brought into existence.
I could love my job, loved it once. I’m an intern-architect, last year I worked for a very progressive, fun, challenging, innovative firm…then I had to move away…now I work for antiquated cheapskates that don’t correlate producing good architecture with making a bigger profit…
How I got here, long story, but let’s just say a lot of broken promises…
Any architects out there looking to hire in the Charlotte area? Let me know, cuz I’m looking to switch.
As of late, things at work have been pretty bad. It’s all a very long story that would take forever to explain, so I won’t try here.
But normally, I love my job! I work with people with Developmental Disabilities. Our agency is pretty big, but in the program I work in, we help people find jobs in the community and help them keep those jobs. I love working with the people that I work with (both the clients and my co-workers).
Yesterday, for the first time in months, I got to spend the day in our classroom, which is the part I love the best. I had so much fun! I was almost in tears because I was finally having an awesome day at work again. In fact, I am considering asking for the permanent position in there (which was recently vacated and which is part of the big long story that I won’t go into, other than to say that I am glad the guy is gone).
i love my job, just not the folk i work with. i get to SDMB and play video games all day. how can i not love it
I looooooove my job - it’s the best one I’ve ever had.
The people I work with swear, drink and have senses of humor. I work only 32 hours a week, but have a great salary. I get three weeks paid vacation, two personal days and unlimited sick days. I have awesome medical and dental coverage. I have 401-K, profit sharing and I’ll get a pension when I retire.
Oh, did I mention that we have Fridays off during the summer?
As for the work, it’s a piece of cake - any monkey could do it.
The only jobs I ever really disliked were one of my work-study jobs in college (cafeteria dish room) and my “between-college-and-grad-school” summer job as a cook at a quasi-fast-food Mexican restaurant. I do reflect fairly frequently on the fact that I actively enjoy my job.
I’ve gone from being a proofreader for an ad agency, through proofreading for a prepress shop, managing the desktop publishing side of the prepress shop, establishing the support department for one of the prepress shop’s software vendors, managing support and product management, serving as vice president and then as interim president of a software company, back to front line product support for another software company, and then on to QA manager.
There’ve been aspects of my position at each stage that I didn’t enjoy much: the tedium of proofreading; the emotional strain of dealing with angry customers and the itellectual exhaustion of intractable technical problems; having to fire people for incompetence; having to lay people off in tough times for the company; trying to hold together a team in the face of having the president and founder of the company (who I’d become very close to personally) successfully fight off a particularly nasty type of throat cancer, sell the company, clash with the chairman of the acquiring company and get fired; dealing myself with the chairman of the parent company (a vicious rat bastard who never met anyone he didn’t try to screw over); negotiating the sale of the company to one of our competitors (effectively shooting the horse out from under myself and the rest of the crew that had hung with us); having the product I was hired here to support go absolutely nowhere in the market.
I never woke up in the morning and said “Yippee” about those things. But I always woke up in the morning knowing that it was my choice to go in and deal with them, and that if I was no longer willing to I was perfectly free not to. People tend to be more dissatisfied when they believe that they’re “forced” to do something, when they feel that what happens to them is outside their control, when they forget that they make a decision every day that the rewards of their job (financial, emotional, intellectual, whatever) are worth more than the negative factors. I might be more susceptible to those feelings if I had not waited to marry and have kids until I felt secure enough in my financial position and confident enough of my value to potential employers that I could at any time walk away from a job and go six months or more with no income without subjecting my family to life on the streets. But even if that were not the case, even if I could not survive for a week without the income from a bad job, I hope I would still know that going to work was still my choice – that I was freely choosing the evils of the job over starvation for my family. This attitude more than any other factor has allowed me to deal successfully with the things that have come my way over the years.
Lest I give the wrong impression, there are many things I have liked about the jobs I’ve had: the intellectual challenge of solving problems, both technical and interpersonal; the gratification of making a definite and visible contribution to the success of the products I’ve worked with; being involved with products that clearly and definitely made it possible for other companies to accomplish their goals more effectively; having opportunities to travel and interact with customers face-to-face at trade shows and to work with some of the most influential companies in the software industry; watching employees develop their technical and professional skills under my guidance; being recognized and rewarded financially for my accomplishments. The things I’ve enjoyed have generally been essential characteristics of the jobs I’ve done, while the things I’ve disliked have more often than not been events or particular circumstances.
Unless you’re pathological (and I’ve seen no evidence of that in your posts), you won’t even try jobs that you’re patently unsuited for. If you think you’re interested in a particular field, look for an entry-level post that offers contact with as many departments of the organization as possible (e.g., the traffic department of an ad agency, the support or QA groups in a technology company). Seek positions in which your contribution to the success of the organization can be tangibly measured, and make sure that you know where you stand on those measures at any given time.
Sax, where in the hell do you work? And are they hiring?